September’s Best Credit Card Offers

Credit card companies like to switch up their offers pretty frequently, which means you’ll have to stay sharp to save yourself the most money you can.

Choosing the best credit card isn’t easy, either; there are multiple categories of cards offering varying levels of rewards.

The cards covered in this post will be from the five major categories of credit cards: airline, hotel, travel, cash back and low-interest.

September’s Best Airline Rewards Card Offer

60,000 Points, Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier

Right now, the Southwest card’s 60K offer is the best dollar-for-dollar value. In order to get those points, you’ll have to spend $2,000 in the first three months of opening your card.

Normally, Southwest offers a 40,000-point bonus on this card, but they’ve been running the 60K promotion for a couple of months now.

The reason the 60K offer is such a good deal is because the cost of Southwest’s rewards flights is among the best in the industry. Depending on where you want to fly, there’s a good chance you can squeeze three round-trip flights out of that promo offer.

The Barclaycard AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard is also offering 60,000 points, but rewards flights on American cost more than Southwest.

The value: The average domestic flight in America costs about $350; that’s more than $1,000 in value if you can get three round-trips from your 60,000 points.

September’s Best Hotel Rewards Card Offer:

100,000 points, Hilton HHonors Surpass from American Express

The Hilton HHonors Surpass’ standard intro offer is 75,000 points. Thankfully, they’ve chosen to bump that bonus up to 100,000, making this an offer that’s hard to resist if you’re looking for the most free nights you can get.

The number of points you need to book a room depends on the season in which you’re booking as well as the hotel’s location. Hotels in popular places will cost more, and that cost will rise during the busy season but fall during the slow season.

Their cheapest hotels will cost you, at most, 10,000 points, which means you can earn 10 free nights with your bonus points.

Also, Hilton has a Fifth Night Free program that gives you a free fifth night when you book five nights using points. If you use this program, then you could potentially get 12 free nights from that intro bonus.

The value: The average hotel room in the U.S. costs $127, which puts your savings for 10 nights at $1,270 and 12 nights at $1,514.

September’s Best Travel Rewards Card Offer:

50,000 points, Bank of America Premium Rewards

September marked the debut of the Bank of America Premium Rewards card, a $95-a-year credit card with a 50,000-point bonus.

The card also provides $100 a year for airline incidentals like upgrades, luggage and in-flight purchases as well as a $100 reimbursement if you apply for the Global Entry program, which gives you expedited security check-in at airports.

Those 50,000 points can only be redeemed for cash — $500, to be exact. One of the options you have for getting that cash is depositing it to a Bank of America checking or savings account. If you do, you’ll get a 10% bonus on the money you deposit.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred also offers 50,000 points, but those points can be transferred to 11 airline and hotel loyalty programs, including Hyatt, Marriott, United and Southwest.

The value: $500 in cash back, $200 in travel reimbursements

September’s Best Cash Back Rewards Card Offers:

$200, AARP Visa

Don’t be thrown off by the name – anyone can apply for the AARP Visa Signature from Chase. The $200 reward is yours when you spend $500.

In addition to this up-front bonus, you’ll get 0% interest on balance transfers for 12 months and a cash-rewards system that gives you 3% back on dining and gas, and 1% on all other purchases.

Keep in mind that the AARP Visa Signature has the best up-front cash bonus but other cards have better everyday cash-back rates.

The Chase Freedom Unlimited and Capital One Quicksilver have a $150 bonus and 1.5% everyday cashback rates.

The value: $200 in cash back.

September’s Low-Interest Card Offers:

0% for 21 months, Citi Simplicity

Our final best offer comes from the low-interest category, where credit cards tend to offer long 0% APR’s on purchases and balance transfer.

The Citi Simplicity is the king here with its 21-month interest-free period. The Citi Diamond Preferred offers the same intro period, but the big difference between the two is the Citi Simplicity has no late fees and no penalty APR’s.

If you’re carrying a $3,000 balance on a credit card with an interest rate of 20.99% and you transfer it to the Simplicity, there are big savings in store for you.

How much? Well, if it takes you 21 months to pay down that $3,000, you’ll pay $610 in interest. You can avoid those interest payments by transferring your balance to the Citi Simplicity card. Citi will charge you a 3% fee for your balance – $90.

The value: $520 on a $3,000 balance (20.99% APR) paid down over 21 months.